A Quick, Recurring, Strong Breath (sharp sleep sigh?)

[KillMyApnea]

Hi All...
I'm currently on ResMed VAuto (PS 1.6 over 8.4-13.0) but most night my IPAP is 10 and EPAP is 8.4. That said, the issue in this thread happens on different settings and even machines. I haven't noticed a correlation with a certain machine or pressure setting.

See these flow charts ...

b1.jpg (78.47 KiB) Viewed 421 times

b2.jpg (170.21 KiB) Viewed 421 times

Notice that larger breath in the above two flow pics? This is me asleep, I start a normal breath then that suddenly turns into a quick sigh. I know this because it happened a few time while I was falling asleep and it woke me up. This never happened to me before starting CPAP!

And it repeats throughout the night while I'm asleep as you can see in the following sample. There is no periodic repetition, it just happens several times a night, say 15 or 25 times maybe.

repeating.jpg (121.05 KiB) Viewed 421 times

This never happened to me before starting CPAP, nor have I seen a post talking about it on the forums. I'm sorta scared, but more importantly I want to know what it is, why it's happening, the effects of it and how to make it go away.

Please HELP!

[Pugsy]

It's likely an arousal breath...just a quick deeper inhale and exhale that is just for one breath.
It's no big deal. Very possibly related to changing position in bed.
I get those kind of quick inhales myself...most people will have them from time to time.

Watch the videos here that talk about arousal breathing.
While mainly talking about events being flagged related to arousal/awake/half awake...the basics behind what it looks like is the same no matter if events get flagged or not.
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

I don't think that it is the cause of the wake up but instead a symptom of the wake up.

[Miss Emerita]

I do this deep sighing pretty frequently too. A sigh is often followed by shallower breathing, probably because the sigh washed out some CO2, which is the trigger to breathe. In my case, while sometimes I'd say a one-off sigh plus a little shallower breathing represents a little arousal, I think fairly often it doesn't. I used a Dreem 2 sleeptracker for a while, and many of these sighs were not associated with a change in sleep stage or with a wake-up. (Though mind you, I learned to take some of the Dreem results with a big pinch of salt.)